Ang San Miguel Corporation at Rural Rising Ph (RuRi) ay nakapag-rescue buy na ng 1.7 milyon na kilo ng prutas at gulay simula nung taong 2020 upang matulungan ang mga magsasaka. 

Umaabot na sa 4,500 na magsasaka mula sa Luzon ang natulungan ng SMC at RuRi sa programang ito sa pamamagitan ng agricultural products na dinadala sa Better World Diliman community center. 

 “Food security remains to be one of the pressing concerns today and in the coming years, and we are happy to help bridge the gap between farmers and end-consumers by ensuring farmers get better-than-farmgate prices for their agricultural produce to earn higher incomes while offering these directly to consumers, including our employees,” wika ni SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang. 

 “This partnership also allows us to provide a steady supply of fruits and vegetables to our adopted communities in Tondo through our Better World Tondo community center,” dagdag pa niya. 

Kasama sa 1.7 milyon kilos ng prutas at gulay ang donasyon na 14,000 kilos na kinabibilangan ng sayote, cabbage, lemons, at watermelons sa mga komunidad sa Tondo simula 2020 habang ang Box-All-You-Can activities sa SMC head office ay nakapagbenta ng 2,260 kilos ng prutas at gulay  sa mga empleyado. 

Ang naturang inisyatibo ay bahagi ng programa ng SMC para pataasin ang kinikita ng mga magsasaka, mabawasan ang food waste at makatulong sa seguridad sa pagkain sa gitna ng pandemya. 

Noong 2020, ang San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) ay namili rin ng mais mula sa mga farmers cooperatives sa buong bansa nang hindi ito madala sa mga pamilihan dahil sa quarantine protocols. Nakatulong ito para masiguro ang raw materials ng SMFI para sa produksyon. 

Samantala, libre pa rin ang espasyo para sa mga magsasaka sa Circolo Market sa pakikipagtulungan sa Cabuyao Agriculture Office sa Laguna at  sa San Miguel Market sa Sariaya, Quezon province kung saan nakatira ang farmer and fisherfolk relocatees sa San Miguel Christian Gayeta Homes. 

 “Our efforts are not limited to just helping farmers sell their excess produce to prevent these from going to waste. These also include providing market facilities so they can save on transportation costs and also maintain the freshness and quality of products sold to consumers and also supporting community-based agriculture initiatives,” wika ni Ang. 

Nung 2020 ay nakipagtulungan rin ang SMC sa Department of Agriculture para sa “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” rolling stores sa Petron stations. 

Samantala, ang mga miyembro naman ng RSA Farmers Association sa Davao del Sur napalago ang suporta ni Ang maliban sa kinita SMC community reselling program para sa rabbitry at hog-raising livelihood projects. 

Nabigyan rin sila ng Entrepreneurship and Financial Management (EFM) training ng SMC sa pamamagitan ng Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA).  Inaalagaan ng mga miyembro ng RSA Farmers Association ang mga rabbit mula sa Aznar Rabbitry Farms sa ilalim ng rabbitry buyback program partnership. Binibigyan rin sila ang technical assistance ng BMEG at pautang para sa feeds sa ilalim ng community hog-raising/hog-fattening program.

San Miguel Corporation (SMC), together with Rural Rising Ph (RuRi), has rescued over 1.7 million kgs. of fruits and vegetables in total from farmers struggling to sell their harvests since the pandemic started in 2020.

SMC’s partnership with RuRi has helped boost incomes of about 4,500 farmers from Luzon and provided consumers with fruits and vegetables at affordable prices through the company’s Better World Diliman community center.

“Food security remains to be one of the pressing concerns today and in the coming years, and we are happy to help bridge the gap between farmers and end-consumers by ensuring farmers get better-than-farmgate prices for their agricultural produce to earn higher incomes while offering these directly to consumers, including our employees,” said SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang.

“This partnership also allows us to provide a steady supply of fruits and vegetables to our adopted communities in Tondo through our Better World Tondo community center,” he added.

From the 1.7 million kilos rescued, Better World Diliman donated over 14,000 kgs of agriculture produce, including sayote, cabbage, lemons, watermelons to Tondo-based communities since 2020 while its more recent Box-All-You-Can activities at SMC head office yielded 2,260 kgs of fruits and vegetables sold to employees.

The initiative is part of SMC’s program to help boost farm incomes, prevent food waste, and ensure the country’s food security amid the ongoing pandemic.

In the early months of the health crisis in 2020, SMC’s San Miguel Foods Inc. (SMFI) ramped up local corn purchases from farmer cooperatives nationwide with quarantine protocols and disruptions in transportation limiting their ability to sell their produce.

This helped guarantee off-take for corn farmers and at same time secured SMFI’s raw materials for food production.

Meanwhile, SMC continues to provide rent-free spaces for farmers to sell their produce at the Circolo Market in cooperation with the Cabuyao Agriculture Office in Laguna, and at the San Miguel Market in Sariaya, Quezon province —the latter mainly for farmer and fisherfolk relocatees residing at the San Miguel Christian Gayeta Homes.

“Our efforts are not limited to just helping farmers sell their excess produce to prevent these from going to waste. These also include providing market facilities so they can save on transportation costs and also maintain the freshness and quality of products sold to consumers and also supporting community-based agriculture initiatives,” Ang said.

In 2020, SMC and the Department of Agriculture expanded “Kadiwa ni Ani at Kita” rolling stores at Petron stations to help farmers in selling their products to consumers following strict quarantine restrictions. SMC also tapped DA’s network of farmer cooperatives to source agricultural inputs like corn and cassava for various food products.

Meanwhile, members of the RSA Farmers Association in Davao del Sur have utilized part of support provided by Ang and also earnings from the SMC community reselling program as seed capital for the rabbitry and hog-raising livelihood projects.

They also benefited from Entrepreneurship and Financial Management (EFM) training provided by SMC through the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA).

Members of the RSA Farmers Association take care of rabbits from Aznar Rabbitry Farms under a rabbitry buyback program partnership. B-MEG personnel give technical assistance while BMEG local feed distributors also extend credit for the feed requirements of the association under the community hog-raising/hog-fattening program.